The price of crude oil continued to move lower Tuesday morning on demand growth concerns and a steady US dollar.
Barclay's, in its recent report, said China's oil demand growth has eased from 8 percent year-on-year between September last year to January to around 3 percent between February and April. The bank expects Chinese oil demand to grow 5 percent this year.
Earlier today, the International Energy Agency, in its monthly Oil Market Report, inched up oil demand projection by 65,000 bd to 90.6 mbd for 2013.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for June delivery, slipped $0.46 to $04.71 a barrel. Yesterday, oil ended lower mostly on demand growth concerns after a sharp decline in refined crude output for April in China and some soft economic data out of the world second largest economy. Investors also weighed speculations the U.S. Federal Reserve will cut back on its quantitative easing program following some upbeat macroeconomic data out of the country, including lower employment levels reported last week. Crude processing in China dived to its lowest level in eight months with April output dropping to 9.36 barrels a day, reports the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics. The decrease has been largely attributed to maintenance.
This morning, the U.S. dollar was steady around its 5-week high versus the euro and hovering near its 3-week high against sterling. The buck was extending its 4-year high versus the yen, while trading around its 8-month high against the Swiss franc.
In economic news from the euro zone, confidence among German investors increased less-than-expected in May as worries over the poor economic situation in euro zone continued to weigh, results of a survey by the Centre For European Economic Research (ZEW) revealed. The ZEW indicator of economic sentiment rose marginally to 36.4 in May from 36.3 in April. This was notably below the score of 40 forecast by economists. The outcome was, however, better than in March, when the indicator fell by 12.2 points.
Euro zone industrial production growth accelerated more than expected in March, largely due to an increase in energy output. Industrial output advanced 1 percent month-on-month in March, Eurostat reported. The rate of growth was bigger than the 0.3 percent rise seen in February and the 0.5 percent growth forecast by economists.
From the U.S., the Labor Department is set to release its report on import and export prices for April at 8:30 am ET. Economists estimate a 0.1 percent drop in exports compared to the previous month, while import prices may have fallen a steeper 0.5 percent.
Today after the market hours, the API will release its crude oil inventories report for the weekended May 10.
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Market Analysis
June 05, 2026 16:18 ET A busy week for economic news flow saw a slew of reports being released that reflected the trends in the U.S. labor market. In Europe, economic growth and inflation data gained attention as the European Central Bank and Bank of England head for policy session later in the month. In Asia, the monetary policy session of the Indian central bank was in focus as the country, a major oil importer, reels under the pressures of a weaker rupee and rising inflation.